


Taking the Bus

by orphan_account



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: AU, F/F, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 04:47:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9476384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Kara's new to earth and has no idea how to use public transportation. Lena happens to be around and offers to help her.





	

Lena was sitting at the bus stop near her school.

Not that she was waiting for a bus. It was just a convenient place for her driver to pick her up and avoid the after-school traffic. Said driver had been stolen away by Lex to help move one of his experiments and Lena was stuck waiting while her driver finished up and drove the hour back to the city. Exactly why her mother and father had decided to buy her an apartment when she went to a boarding school was beyond her.

She was mindlessly scrolling through news articles on her phone when someone sat down next to her. She didn’t pay them mind and continued scrolling through the articles. _What do you mean the gay penguins split up?_ She frowned before continuing scrolling.

It took her a while to realize that the stranger had been trying to get her attention.

“Yes?” Lena said, giving the stranger a look. It comes out more harshly than she expected, but she hadn’t spoken in nearly half an hour and her throat was scratchy. Still, she felt guilty when the stranger – the girl with blonde hair and blue eyes – shrunk in fear. She cleared her throat and tried again, much more softly. “Do you need help?”

The stranger blinked before breaking out into a smile so fast it almost gave Lena mental whiplash. The girl started digging through her backpack and mumbling under her breath. With a shout of achievement accompanied by a word that Lena doesn’t recognize, the girl pulled out a pamphlet.

“What bus do I take?” the girl asked. Lena looked quizzically at the pamphlet and realized it was one of those bus route pamphlets.

“Well, where do you need to go?” Lena replied, doing her best to sound gentle. With the stranger looking so wholly lost, Lena couldn’t bring herself to be annoyed.

“I… I do not know,” the stranger said, frowning. “I am supposed to go to Jeremiah and Eliza’s place of work.”

“Do you know where they work?” Lena asked. She really couldn’t help if the stranger didn’t give adequate information.

“No,” the stranger said. She spread out the pamphlet on her lap and frowned at it. “I am lost.”

“Have you been there before?” Lena asked, hoping that she could get some information to help this girl. When the girl nodded, Lena pressed on. “Do you remember anything around there? Any names on buildings?”

The girl started digging through her backpack again and pulled out a pen. She scribbled something down on the pamphlet before showing it to Lena again.

In neat script that reminded Lena of kindergarten teachers was _Lao’s Dumpling Palace_ and _Whole Foods_.

“That helps a lot,” Lena said to the stranger, who she should really stop referring to as the stranger in her head at this point. Lena pulled up the location of the restaurant and all nearby Whole Foods. “What do –  Jeremiah and Eliza, was it? – do?”

“They are bioengineers,” the stranger said promptly.

After taking that into account, there were two possible places the stranger could be referring to and Lena pulled them up to show the stranger the street view.

“It is this place!” the stranger said when Lena showed her the second location. She sat up straighter and Lena barely realized that the girl had still been hunched over the entire time. Now that Lena could see it, she realized that the stranger was wearing a uniform identical to hers. “Thank you so much!”

“Do you know how to get there now?”

“…No, I still do not.” The stranger was frowning again.

“You can take this route,” said Lena, taking the pen from the stranger. She circled the location of the building on the map and underlined the numbers of the necessary bus routes. “Get off on the eighth stop from here then take this other one - ” she moved the pen from the blue line she had been pointing at to the orange line “ – and get off on the third stop on this one.” She laid the pen down on the side of the map.

“Thank you so much!” The stranger grinned at Lena before faltering. “What is your name? I cannot properly thank you without knowing your name.”

“I’m Lena,” she said, laughing. This girl had a strange way of talking. “And yours?”

“I am Kara.” _Kara_ beamed at Lena. “Thank you so much, Lena.”

“Don’t mention it,” Lena said, waving her off.

The girl – _Kara ­_ – frowned again.

“Why not mention it? You helped me and should be thanked in return.”

“It’s an expression, Kara.”

“An expression,” Kara said. She rolled the words in her mouth like they were new and experimental. “So do I mention it or do I not?”

“It’s just like saying ‘you’re welcome’,” Lena said, not really knowing how else to explain it. She looked at Kara, brows furrowing as she regarded this… alien of a person. On impulse, she asked, “Are you sure you know what buses to take?”

“I believe so.” Kara brought the map to her face, not even paying attention to the pen that clattered to the floor. “Eliza made sure I had enough small bills for the bus and Alex gave me a few more for emergency purposes.”

“What if I go with you?” Lena offered. She could do that. She had some cash on her.

“I cannot impose on you like that,” Kara said, shaking her head. “You have already aided me.”

“You wouldn’t be imposing. It’s the route I need to take anyway,” Lena lied. Well, she did need to take it if she wanted peace of mind. Kara was so small, she’d probably be kidnapped.

“If you are certain,” Kara said uncertainly. Lena noticed the little crinkle between Kara’s eyebrows.

“I’m certain,” Lena replied more surely. “Now who are Jeremiah, Eliza, and Alex?”

Kara’s face _lit up_. She talked so fast, Lena could hardly keep up with what she was saying. Pretty much all she got out of it was that Kara was adopted. It didn’t help that she was trying to discretely text her driver that she needed to be picked up at a different location.

“I’m adopted, too,” Lena said, hoping to show that she was indeed listening. And maybe to bring them closer. Maybe.

“Truly? What is your family like?”

Okay, so maybe Lena didn’t think this all the way through. Lillian was not the _best_ mother and Lionel had passed away the year before. After a short internal debate, Lena settled on talking about Lex while neatly avoiding how he had been distant recently.

As lucky would have it, the bus Kara needed pulled up before Lena could actually start talking and Kara was distracted by quickly shoving the pamphlet into her backpack. She must of done that pretty harshly because Lena heard the slight tearing of Kara’s backpack. Lena watched as Kara dug out her wallet and seemed to struggle with the money.

“I am not from this area,” Kara said sheepishly as Lena helped her figure out the bills and coins. Lena just smiled in return.

They found seats towards the middle of the bus and sat down. Kara was too distracted by watching everything pass by the windows to pick up their previous train of conversation and Lena was more than happy to just watch her grin at everything.

They didn’t talk while they rode and they would have missed the stop if someone else hadn’t also pulled the string for it.

“So why are you taking the bus to your adoptive parents’ workplace instead of to your home?” Lena asked as they sat down on the stop’s bench.

“Eliza said our house is too far away to get to by public transportation,” Kara answered.

“Where do you live around?” Lena asked curiously.

“Midvale!” Kara answered excitedly. “There are a lot of birds there, especially near the beach! We do not have birds where I am from and it was quite an experience seeing them.”

Kara grinned at Lena and Lena didn’t have the heart to ask her where she could have come from that didn’t have any birds.

“Did you know that birds are descended from dinosaurs?” Lena said instead. “And I can see why they wanted you to go to their workplace instead. Midvale is thirty minutes from here by car. It’d be a nightmare to take the bus there.”

“Dinosaurs?” Kara replied excitedly. “Little birds are from the big, reptilian monsters of yore?”

“That’s one way to put it,” Lena laughed, somehow not at all surprised that Kara would fixate on that one part. “They’ve changed a lot, though. And some researchers think that dinosaurs used to have feathers, not the retile skin we think they did.”

“Truly?” Kara dug through her backpack again and Lena just watched as Kara took out a small notepad with an attached pen – both bright green – and scribbled down _Dinosaurs – Birds_. Well, as far as Kara’s handwriting could be counted as “scribbles”.

Again, Lena was cut off by the bus pulling up.

Conversation was dropped again in favor of Kara staring out the window in wonder. All too soon, Kara’s stop came.

“Thank you,” Kara said once they got onto the curb. “I would have been at a loss without you.”

“You’re smart, I’m sure you would have gotten here eventually,” Lena replied.

“You hardly know me,” Kara scoffed. “You would not know if I were smart.”

“Well, we go to the same school.”

“Huh?” Kara tilted her head and Lena was endeared by her adorableness.

Lena gestured at their matching uniforms. “It’s a competitive school. You wouldn’t have gotten in if you weren’t smart.”

“I did not notice this.” Kara frowned for a moment before she grinned at Lena. “I believe this means that I will be seeing you around.”

“Definitely, if we have classes together,” Lena said. “You can sit with me during lunch, if you would like.”

“Very much, Lena,” Kara said brightly.

Lena just smiled in return.

“That is Jeremiah and Eliza’s workplace,” Kara continued, pointing to a gray building with a plane façade. “I look forward to taking the bus with you tomorrow!”

“Me too,” Lena replied. Kara waved as she walked away.

 _Shit_. _I have to start taking the bus_.

 


End file.
